The Game for Real

Compared to Kafka and a member of the Surrealists, Richard Weiner is one of European literature's best-kept secrets. The Game for Real marks the long overdue arrival of his dreamlike, anxiety-ridden fiction into English.

The book opens with The Game of Quartering, where an unnamed hero discovers his double. Surely, he reasons, if he has a double, then his double must also have a double too, and so on . . . What follows is a grotesquely hilarious, snowballing spree through Paris, where real-life landmarks disintegrate into theaters, puppet shows, and, ultimately, a funeral.

Following this, The Game for the Honor of Payback neatly inverts things: instead of a branching, expanding adventure, a man known as "Shame" embarks on a quest that collapses inward. Slapped by someone he despises, he launches a doomed crusade to return the insult. As the stakes grow ever higher, it seems that Shame will stop at nothing -- even if he discovers he's chasing his own tail.

Blending metaphysical questions with farcical humor, bizarre twists, and acute psychology, The Game for Real is a riveting exploration of who we are -- and why we can't be so sure we know.


Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Two Lines Press
Published: 05/12/2015
ISBN: 9781931883443
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.00w x 1.30d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 06/22/2015
Foreword 08/27/2015